Webhooks - Zoho People

Webhooks Automation - Zoho People

What is a webhook?

A webhook in Zoho People is a method for automating real-time data transfer or notifications from Zoho People to third-party applications based on specific events that occur in Zoho People. Webhooks enable instant communication by sending notifications to a specified URL whenever a user performs an action in Zoho People. This automation facilitates seamless and efficient integration between Zoho People and other third-party applications.

Webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks, functioning as automated event notifications sent via HTTP POST. They notify a specified URL by delivering a message whenever predefined events take place.

How Webhooks works in Zoho People

  1. Create a Webhook for a form in a service and associate it with a new or existing Workflow.
  2. Whenever a Workflow trigger event occurs, the Webhook is triggered, sending automated notifications from Zoho People to third party applications.

Benefits of Webhooks

  1. Flexible and customizable.
  2. Sends instant notifications to third party applications.
  3. Users can integrate with their own custom applications or any third party applications.
  4. Real-time data synchronization.
  5. A complete webhooks list, webhook failures, and successes are provided.

Types of Webhooks

  1. Webhooks List: Using Zoho People webhooks, you can communicate with the third party applications by sending instant notifications every time when a user performs an action on the organizational account data.
  2. Failure Webhooks: The failure webhooks are listed on this page along with the details such as webhook name, form name, associated record, latest invoke time, redo an action and the response message. You can also filter the webhooks using the following options such as forms, the name of the webhooks and the duration period.
  3. Successful Webhooks: The successful webhooks are listed on this page along with the details such as webhook name, form name, associated record, latest invoke time and the response message. You can also able to filter the webhooks using the following options such as forms, the name of the webhook and the duration period.

API

Zoho People provides APIs (Application Programming Interface) for integrating HR modules with third-party applications. With Zoho People API, you can extract employees data and form data in XML or JSON format and develop new applications or integrate with your existing business applications. As Zoho People API is independent of programming languages, you can develop applications in any programming language (Java, .Net, C, C++, PHP, etc.) .

To learn more, click here.

Fields in Webhooks

Field Name Description Data Type Maximum Limit
Name Specify name of the webhook Text Alphanumeric(50)
Description Add a description for the webhook Text 250 characters
URL to Notify Specify the API URL of the third-party application or Zoho application (eg: Zoho People, Zoho Creator) URL 250 characters
Method Select type of API method - POST or GET. POST is the default selected method Radio Button -
Module Choose the 'Form' from which the data is to be communicated to the third-party application Picklist -
Append Entity Parameters Specify the Parameter Name and corresponding Parameter Value. This is the request parameters sent while triggering the webhook notification to third-party application. String 3000 characters
Append Custom Parameters Specify the Zoho People Parameter Name and corresponding Value for the webhook. This is also the request parameters sent while triggering the webhook. The name and the value are as configured. This key/value pair is mainly used to send the Auth tokens, security tokens, etc. String -
Preview URL Preview the complete webhook URL to be notified to the third-party application. Text Read-only
 

Set up Webhook in Zoho People

Webhook is simple and easy to configure. You just need to configure HTTP URLs and associate them with a workflow rule to automate the workflow process. Follow the steps below to configure webhooks for a service.

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Settings > Select a Service > Automation > Actions > Webhooks.
  2. Click Add Webhook.
  3. In the Webhook set up page configure as follows.
  4. Select the form in the service where the Webhook bust be trigged upon change event.
  5. Enter a Webhook name.
  6. Specify the third party URL to notify.
  7. Enter the description (purpose of the webhook.
  8. Selecta API method as either POST or GET based on the requirement.
  9. Specify the necessary URL Query Parameters:
    Info
    Specify the parameter name and the corresponding parameter value. You can add only 10 entity fields as parameters specify the parameter in user defined format. Eg: XML, JSON etc., specify the custom parameter name and parameter value. You can add only 5 custom parameters.

  1. If necessary add  a custom HTTP header to securely transmit authentication tokens, security tokens, API keys, or other credentials within the request header.


  2. Preview URL and if necessary click Refresh URL to update.


  3. Click Save.
    Webhook will be saved and available to be tagged to a workflow.

Map a Webhook to a Workflow

Create a workflow with trigger events based on which webhooks must be triggered, and associate the Webhook with the Workflow.

To map a Webhook to a Workflow:
  1. From your home page, go to Settings > Select a Service > Workflows > Add Workflow.
  2. Provide all the required details, Learn more to configure Workflow.
  3. Under Actions, click Webhook and click the (+) add icon to add a new Webhook to the workflow or you can select the existing Webhook which are created for the form.
  4. Click Add.
    A workflow is created, and based on the trigger events, the webhook is triggered, sending a notification to the third-party application.

Use Case

Change Employee Status in Exit Form via Webhook

Let's consider a scenario - An employee is resigning his job and you want to change the status as Resigned in the Employee form. Before Webhook was introduced, you need to manually update changes twice in the Employee form as well as in the Exit form. But now, you can automatically POST notification in the Exit form by configuring Webhook using API. Please follow the steps below to configure webhook for this scenario.

  1. From your homepage, navigate to Settings > Select a Service > Automation > Actions > Webhooks.
  2. Click Add Webhook.
  3. In the Webhook set up page configure as follows.
  4. Select the Employee form from the list
  5. Enter a Webhook name.
  7. Enter a description
  8. Select API method type as POST
  9. Enter the URL query parameters as follows
    Quote
    For the User Defined format: Specify the Parameter Name xmlData and the Value Description as shown below:
    <Request>
    <Record>
    <field name="Employee_ID">${ZOHO_LINK_ID}</field>
    <field name="Interviewer">${Reporting_To}</field>
    <field name="Separation_date">${Exit_Date}</field>
    </Record>
    </Request>
    Info
    In the above XML string, the tag field represents the fields in Zoho People, the name represents the label name of the field and the value tag represents data to be pushed.
  10. Specify Custom Parameters: "authtoken" in the Parameter Name and the authtoken key in Parameter Value.
    Info
    To use the API, you will require Zoho People authentication token from your Zoho People account. For Zoho People API Guide, Click here.
  11. Click Save.
Info
Map this Webhook to a Workflow and define the trigger events.